The Bahraini calendar for the Hijri new year 1443, which begins on August 9, has been issued by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.
Council chairman Shaikh Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, who also chairs the Supreme Committee for Bahraini Calendar, said it followed the ‘Al Zubarah and Bahrain’ methodology and was issued under the directives of His Majesty King Hamad.
The calendar also follows the Sharia, scientific and astronomical standards, as well as methodology established by notable Bahraini scholars in determining the accurate times for prayers, religious occasions and other events.
He added that the ‘Al Zubarah and Bahrain’ methodology had been adopted in the year 1783 AD.
Shaikh Abdulrahman noted that the Supreme Committee for the Bahraini Calendar had paid special attention to increasing the accuracy of setting prayer timings and the Hijri months.
He added that the committee includes several religious scholars, astronomers, and specialists, praising their tireless efforts in issuing the calendar.
He explained that the calendar has set the timing for the Isha prayer to when the sun is exactly at 18 degrees below the horizon, as followed by the “Zubarah and Bahrain Calendar”.
Shaikh Abdulrahman further noted that it customarily calculated the time for prayers astronomically, instead of the conventional method for the timing of the Isha prayer, which was previously established in the kingdom, by adding 90 minutes to the time of the Maghrib prayer throughout the year.
He also confirmed that the difference between the time of the Isha prayer, according to the previously established standard and the astronomical method will be at its most on March 21 and September 22, and will amount to 14 minutes. He also added that the difference, on the first of Muharram 1443 AH, corresponding to August 9, 2021 AD, will be 7 minutes, and that there will be no difference between the two timings during the period June 8 to 29.
He also said that according to the new calendar, the time of the Dhuhr prayer is to be set according to the time when the sun fully crosses the meridian instead of having the line in the centre of the sun disk, as was done previously.
He said that the time difference will be one minute to a maximum of two minutes from what was adopted in the previous calendar.
Shaikh Abdulrahman stressed that issuance of the calendar confirms the great strides of Bahrain’s first pioneers in various sciences, including astronomy and astronomical arithmetic, noting that the kingdom has always encouraged various fields of science and has been a destination for scholars of all disciplines and sects.
He underlined that the information pertaining to the Bahraini calendar is available via the “Islamiyat App”.
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