# Why does Ramadan fall in different seasons each year?

*Why Ramadan moves through the seasons: nasi and the lunisolar calendar*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/23/
- Date: 2021-04-13 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #210 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:23:41–1:28:55)
- Status: latest answer on its topic; general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XuHMCz2N3U&t=5021s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/

**Topics:** Pre-Islamic Arabia; Fasting times, moon sighting and the calendar

**Question as asked:** Why is Ramadan in different seasons?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says the early Islamic calendar was kept in line with the seasons by an extra month, nasi, and Ramadan only began moving through the year after that practice lapsed.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that in his view the calendar in the Prophet's time was lunisolar, kept aligned with the seasons by an intercalary month, nasi, and that Ramadan probably began to rotate through the year only after the practice lapsed during the expansion of the state.

**Evidence, his words at 1:24:16:** “the islamic calendar in essence was a uh it was a kind of luna solar calendar” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XuHMCz2N3U&t=5056s)

## Longer summary

Asked why Ramadan falls in different seasons, Mufti Abu Layth says he has a video on this and that in essence the Islamic calendar was static: a lunar calendar superimposed on a solar one, kept aligned, he says, by scribes who were mainly Jewish through an intercalary month called nasi, added in a set pattern so that the calendar realigned itself, he believes, every seventeen years. He says this continued in early Islam, but as the state expanded the administration of nasi lapsed, since it was not a religious priority, and later generations, seeing a verse of the Quran that speaks of the month being used to cause mischief [?], assumed it was wrong and let the calendar run free. He says that is why the months now rotate around the year, and that he does not think Ramadan rotated like this in the Prophet's time.

## Sources and names cited

- nasi (the intercalary month)
- Quran 9:37 (the nasi verse) [?] (reference uncertain; possibly https://quran.com/9/37)

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:23:41–1:28:55)

[1:23:01] there's uh you know with all the kind of distractions and stuff there's a lot of you that i hadn't still got back to especially on the discord thing and so i've been in and out and not so you know just being distracted but i was hoping in shuttle last during ramadan to really use that time to kind of like to kind of inshallah let's let's jump in let's kind of catch up let's do a lot of stuff because there won't be monday nights during ramadan i will still be doing mine traps and sharing other things so that's all uh that's all good right uh

[1:23:37] sakhir shukran shukran shukran much love much love much love this whole thing is going mad right i've got no idea what's going on over there uh my other account by youtube has been deleted right let me just one moment deco for defending you from thank you queen inaya rosalina thank you sweetie wishing you a blessed month of ramadan absolutely people absolutely uh that's to all of you why is ramadan in different seasons that's a very good question you know very good question

[1:24:16] so i feel that look i have got a video clip on this by the way that i feel that um let's make sure this is you see ramadan in essence is it is it was static it wasn't kind of in flow the way it is now the islamic calendar in essence was a static calendar that's what i definitely i do feel i've got a whole video explaining that if you look up the word nasi and see the islamic calendar in essence was

[1:24:55] a uh it was a kind of luna solar calendar nowadays it's just strictly a lunar calendar that was not what it was back then in the prophet's time so in the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's time so the lunar calendar was the same but it was based it was superimposed on a solar calendar and they used to do this by the kind of the scribes who were mainly jewish because they really led in all these things so they had a the

[1:25:33] way we have today a leap year to make corrections every four years but they had and they still have it a system where it corrects itself but every 17 years i believe it was so they would add a month um called nasi now the c but when you add the nasi you can't just add it like every other year they had numbers on when they would add it so they would add it like i think it was first on the third year then on this like it'd be three years but then they would change the three into two at some point it'd be three three two

[1:26:11] three two two something like that but once they hit 17 it would be perfectly realigned and what that would do is that would allow everything to remain perfectly static now in early islam that was still happening they were realigning it but what happens is i feel that maybe during the time of um because of so much ex you know expansion with the with islam and and the kind of the state the empire started it starts to massively kind of expand

[1:26:50] it brings in the northern kingdoms um it starts to make ways into you know further west as well now during that time this nasi kind of administration wasn't being done and i feel that it's not that they you see because it wasn't really a priority it wasn't something that people were really thinking about because it wasn't something islamic it was just something people did but now that the world has become so large and all these things are going on these military expeditions and this and that and this and that that they just didn't really

[1:27:28] weren't that mindful of it and then after them the people who come after them they also get slightly confused because there's a verse in the quran called now which is also talking about that month but it's talking about how people use it to cause mischief and mayhem but here people assume that you know what maybe that was something wrong and the fact that the calendar had been in free flow for a while they just let it go so what started to happen is the month started to rotate around the entire year so yeah so

[1:28:08] and ramadan starts to be you know it is what it is it will go around the entire year but i don't think that um i don't think that was in the time of the prophet like that ramadan kareem of the mashallah can you publish a paper on why the hadith oh right that that question i've already seen that one

[1:28:40] um right i'm just trying to see what questions i've missed share limitations on limitations of in light of quran um right happy ramazan mufti saab likewise likewise happy ramadan right so um limitations of nerdy darwah the najdi dawa is just a cultish you know it's just a it's a cultish puritanism that's all it is

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 8XuHMCz2N3U/s/23. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/23/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.