Human civilizations in the all part over the world has been familiar with the system of dating such as Roman calendar, Julian calendar, Gregorian calendar, Chinese calendar, a fragment of Java, etc. In the Arabic civilization, far before the Islamic calendar system “Hijri” was born on 1 Muharram 1 Hijri (622 AD), the Arabs had known 12-month calendar system in 1 year, yet there wasn’t standardization at that point in time. The term is usually would be called by the name of important events that occurred at that moment. For example, in the birth of the prophet Muhammad was known with the name of an elephant due to the aggression occurred toward Ka’bah by armies who ride elephants under Abrahah’s command.
Islamic Hijri calendar system was born in the administration era of caliphate bin Khattab. In a meeting, the Caliph Umar Bin Khattab and Ali ibn Abi Talib took the initiative to formulate the Islamic calendar system. Finally, they chosen the momentum of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migrated from Mecca to Medina as the Islamic New Year, 1 Muharram 1 Hijri.
Islamic Hijri calendar system was born in the administration era of caliphate bin Khattab. In a meeting, the Caliph Umar Bin Khattab and Ali ibn Abi Talib took the initiative to formulate the Islamic calendar system. Finally, they chosen the momentum of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migrated from Mecca to Medina as the Islamic New Year, 1 Muharram 1 Hijri.
Talking about “New Year”, commonly it will be identical with a variety of “celebration” in order to commemorate it. Each nation, people have own celebration of New Year which’s different with others. For instance, Chinese people will celebrate their new year called “Gong Xi Fa Chai” with barongsai dance, gift-giving ang pau and predictions on the fate in that year. Unlike the Chinese nation, the hedonistic in various parts of the world will celebrate the arrival of their new year called “happy new year” with activities that had the happy pleasure-oriented for welcoming “new year” as their perception that moment for rip-roaring. So, how do Muslims celebrate their new year?
On the contrary with the other societies, celebration of Islamic new year is identical to the contemplation of important events, the momentum that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migrated from Mecca to Medina (hijrah) which contains the spiritual and historical values is very essential in the history of Muslim civilization.
In the linguistic aspect, hijrah can be interpreted with ‘migrate move from one place to another.’ If it’s reviewed from the standpoint of science strategy, Sidi Gazalba (1979) in his book, Islamic Revival under Consideration, said that the Prophet Muhammad’s migration is the momentum of journey toward Daulah Islamiyah in order to establish Islamic social order, beginning with the commitment of obedience to the commands of Allah and His Messenger and the strength of braided solidarity among Muslims (ukhwah Islamiyya) between the immigrants and Ansar Muslimimin. Muslim adherence to the commandments of God and His messenger and the fabric of the strong Muslims’ integration when it had brought Islam to reach the glory and spread its wings to all part of the earth as a religion that’s rahmatan lil ‘alamin.
Currently, If the Muslims in various parts of the world to be the people who neglected and oppressed like in Iraq, Palestine and the other hemisphere, it can be said that as a contributing cause is a lack of commitment of Muslims to obey Allah and follow the message of their Messenger, and the erosion of a sense of Islamic brotherhood (ukhwah Islamiyyah) among Muslims eventually disintegrate and Muslim forces day by day becomes more fragile, so very easy to be pitted against and oppressed by the others. That’s why the wisdom of the hijra need to be assessed and learned again so that the historical momentum of the Prophet Muhammad’s hijra can be inspiration source for Muslims in order to come up and migrate into a better people. History has provided evidence that the obedience of the Muslims immigrants and Ansar to the commands of Allah and His messenger and Muslims united under the shadow of Islamic brotherhood has led to the triumph of the Muslims and become respected community.
Every Muslim must have own interpretation of the meaning of “Hijrah” whether literally. Some people make new year Hijriyyah as the momentum to start hijrah in the direction of a better Muslim as taught in Islam that today should be better than yesterday and tomorrow should be better than today. In other words, a Muslim can be said that he is lucky if he managed to make a better life from day to day.
To sum up, the new year should be used as sacred as a momentum to alter the state of individual Muslims and Muslim community to be better. As a student, our concrete contribution to the progress of Muslims is to become students and really to make ourselves as individuals who have a holistic personality, or individuals who have broad knowledge, noble character and civilized.
To sum up, the new year should be used as sacred as a momentum to alter the state of individual Muslims and Muslim community to be better. As a student, our concrete contribution to the progress of Muslims is to become students and really to make ourselves as individuals who have a holistic personality, or individuals who have broad knowledge, noble character and civilized.
