A year that is eleven days short
The Hijri calendar counts moons, not seasons. A month begins with the new crescent and lasts 29 or 30 days, and twelve such months come to 354 or 355 days. The Gregorian year is 365 or 366. So every Hijri date arrives about eleven days earlier each Gregorian year, and nothing in the calendar ever corrects for it. Ramadan was in March and April in 2023, in February and March in 2026, and in 2027 it starts on 8 February. Over about 33 years it moves through every season and comes back to where it started.
This is why there is no fixed answer to “what Gregorian date is 1 Ramadan”: it is a different date every year, and asking for it is really asking for a conversion.
Two ways to decide when a month starts
Here is where the confusion comes from. The question “what is the Hijri date today?” has two kinds of answer, and both are correct in their own terms.
The first is calculated. Saudi Arabia’s Umm al-Qura calendar sets the start of every month years in advance from the astronomical new moon: a month begins on the evening when, at Makkah, the moon sets after the sun and the conjunction has already happened. The whole calendar for 1356 to 1500 AH (about 1937 to 2077 CE) is published and does not change. It is what Saudi government offices, banks and employers use for dates, salaries and deadlines, what the Gulf states follow for civil purposes, and what the Hijri tools on this site show. Every browser has it built in, so the conversion is the same on a phone in Multan and a laptop in Toronto.
The second is sighted. For Ramadan, the two Eids and the Hajj, most countries wait for a committee to confirm that the crescent has actually been seen, by eye or telescope, on the evening of the 29th. If it is seen, the new month starts the next day; if not, the old month runs to 30 days. Clouds, haze and the moon’s position mean the committee in one country can see it when another cannot, and some countries, Pakistan among them, insist on a local sighting rather than accepting one from elsewhere.
The two methods agree most of the time. When they disagree, the sighted month starts one day later than the calculated one, and very rarely a day earlier. That is the whole reason your phone’s Hijri date can differ from the date on the mosque notice board, and why Eid is sometimes celebrated on two consecutive days in two neighbouring countries.
| Umm al-Qura (calculated) | Moon sighting | |
|---|---|---|
| Decided | Years in advance | On the evening of the 29th |
| Used for | Civil dates in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, most apps and calendars | The start of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha in most countries |
| Can differ from the other by | Usually nothing, sometimes one day | |
| Where you see it | Phone calendars, this site’s Hijri tools, Saudi documents | Announcements by each country’s religious authority |
Try it: Hijri Date Converter
Today's Umm al-Qura date, and any date converted either way between 1356 and 1500 AH, with the day of the week.
The 1448 AH year in Gregorian dates
1448 AH began on Tuesday 16 June 2026 and runs to 5 June 2027. It has 355 days, so it is one of the longer Hijri years. These are its main dates on the Umm al-Qura calendar; the religious dates among them are subject to sighting, so expect the official announcement in your country to confirm the date or move it by a day.
| Date | Hijri | Gregorian (Umm al-Qura) |
|---|---|---|
| Islamic New Year | 1 Muharram 1448 | Tuesday 16 June 2026 |
| Ashura | 10 Muharram 1448 | Thursday 25 June 2026 |
| First day of Ramadan | 1 Ramadan 1448 | Monday 8 February 2027 |
| Eid al-Fitr | 1 Shawwal 1448 | Tuesday 9 March 2027 |
| Day of Arafah | 9 Dhu al-Hijjah 1448 | Saturday 15 May 2027 |
| Eid al-Adha | 10 Dhu al-Hijjah 1448 | Sunday 16 May 2027 |
| Islamic New Year | 1 Muharram 1449 | Sunday 6 June 2027 |
The month lengths in 1448 run 29, 30, 29, 30, 30, 29, 30, 30, 29, 30, 29, 30, so Ramadan 1448 has 29 days on the calculated calendar. A sighting committee may still make it 30: the month ends when Shawwal’s crescent is seen, not when the table says so.
If you are planning around Ramadan 1448, the practical reading is: the first fast is on Monday 8 February 2027 if the crescent is seen on Sunday evening 7 February, otherwise on Tuesday 9 February. Schools, offices and shops in the Gulf switch to Ramadan hours from the announced first day.
How many days until Ramadan
Counting the days to Ramadan is the same conversion with a countdown attached, and it is the question people type most in the months before. From today’s date to 8 February 2027 is a number this page cannot print without going stale, so the Ramadan countdown tool works it out live, and shows the countdown to both Eids as well. It uses the Umm al-Qura dates above, which is why it can give a date at all; a sighting-based date exists only once the moon has been seen.
Try it: Ramadan Countdown
Days, hours and minutes to Ramadan 1448 and to both Eids, from the Umm al-Qura dates, in your own time zone.
Converting a date correctly
A few things trip people up when they convert dates between the two calendars.
The Hijri day starts at sunset. Islamically, 1 Ramadan begins at Maghrib on the evening before the first fast. Civil calendars, including Umm al-Qura and every phone, attach the Hijri date to the Gregorian day that follows that sunset. So “1 Ramadan 1448 = 8 February 2027” means the first fast is on the 8th, and Taraweeh prayers begin on the evening of the 7th. If a conversion seems a day out, this is usually why.
Birth dates on old documents are often approximate. Many birth certificates and passports from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan record a Hijri date that was itself converted, sometimes from memory, decades ago, and some assign 1 July or 1 January to anyone whose exact day was unknown. Converting such a date gives you the Gregorian equivalent of the recorded date, which is not always the day the person was born. Government portals that ask for both dates usually want the Umm al-Qura conversion of what is on the document, not a corrected date.
Different tables exist. Umm al-Qura is the civil standard, but the Fatimid and other tabular calendars, used in some communities and in older software, can differ from it by a day. If an official form in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf asks for a Hijri date, Umm al-Qura is the one it expects.
Hijri months do not map to Gregorian months. A Hijri month almost always straddles two Gregorian months, so a monthly salary paid “on the 1st of the Hijri month” lands on a different Gregorian day every month, and twelve Hijri salaries arrive in about 354 days. Anyone paid or charged on the Hijri calendar in Saudi Arabia will recognise this: the calendar on the Hijri Calendar page shows both dates on every day, so the mapping is visible for a whole month or year at once.
Checking a date against the official calendar
Umm al-Qura is published by the Saudi government, and every date on this site’s Hijri pages comes from the copy of it built into your browser (the islamic-umalqura calendar), not from a formula of our own. That means the dates match Saudi government documents exactly for the whole 1356 to 1500 AH range, and it also means that for the religious dates you should still read the sighting announcement in your own country. The prayer-times pages carry the Hijri date for the same reason, and say so.
For the first day of Ramadan and the two Eids, the authorities to watch are the Supreme Court in Saudi Arabia, the moon-sighting committees in Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait, and the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in Pakistan. Their announcements come on the evening of the 29th, after Maghrib.
Frequently asked questions
What Hijri year is it now?
1448 AH, which began on 16 June 2026 and runs to 5 June 2027 on the Umm al-Qura calendar. The converter on this site shows today’s date; because the Hijri year is shorter, the Hijri year number changes in a different Gregorian month every year.
When does Ramadan 1448 start?
On the Umm al-Qura calendar, 1 Ramadan 1448 is Monday 8 February 2027, with Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday 9 March 2027. Countries that wait for the crescent to be sighted may begin a day later, so watch the announcement in your country on the evening of 7 February.
Why is my phone’s Hijri date different from the mosque’s?
Your phone uses the Umm al-Qura calendar, which is calculated years ahead. The mosque follows the sighting announced by the religious authority in your country, which can start a month a day later. The difference appears mostly around Ramadan and the Eids and is usually one day.
Which Hijri date should I put on a Saudi or Gulf government form?
The Umm al-Qura date, which is what the converter and the calendar on this site give. Saudi civil records, banks and employers all use it. For a birth date, convert the date recorded on the document rather than correcting it.
Why do Hijri dates move earlier every year?
Twelve lunar months come to 354 or 355 days, and the Gregorian year has 365 or 366, so every Hijri date arrives about eleven days earlier each year and nothing corrects for it. Over about 33 years a date moves through all the seasons and returns.
Written by Saad Naeem
AI engineer in Doha who builds every tool on ToolboxHere. The figures in the guides come from the official sources named in them or from the tools themselves. Found a mistake? Tell us and it is corrected.