Sha'ban
Sha'aban (Arabic: شعبان) is the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. This is the month of ‘separation’, so called because the pagan Arabs used to disperse in search of water. On the fifteenth night of this month falls the Shab-i-Barat: ‘The Night of Records’; some people think that on this night the prophet Muhammad told his followers that Allah records all the deeds that the humans have to perform for the next year.
| Islamic calendar |
|---|
| Months |
Timing
The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. Since the Islamic lunar calendar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year, Sha'aban migrates throughout the seasons. The start and end dates for Sha'aban are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia[1]):
| CE / AD | AH | First day | Last day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 1426 | 6 September | 4 October |
| 2006 | 1427 | 26 August | 23 September |
| 2007 | 1428 | 15 August | 13 September |
| 2008 | 1429 | 3 August | 1 September |
| 2009 | 1430 | 23 July | 21 August |
| 2010 | 1431 | 14 July | 11 August |
| 2011 | 1432 | 1 July | 1 August |
| 2012 | 1433 | 21 June | 20 July |
| 2013 | 1434 | 11 June | 9 July |
| 2014 | 1435 | 31 May | 28 June |
| 2015 | 1436 | 20 May | 18 June |
| Sha'aban dates between 2005 and 2015 | |||
Islamic Events
- 01 Sha'aban, birth of Zaynab bint ‘Alī
- 03 Sha'aban, birth of Husayn ibn ‘Alī
- 04 Sha'aban, birth of ‘Abbās ibn ‘Alī
- 05 Sha'aban, birth of ‘Alī ibn Husayn
- 05 Sha'aban, death of Hazrat Fizza, the hand-maiden (Qaneez) of Fatimah
- 07 Sha'aban, birth of Qāsim ibn Hasan
- 08 Sha'aban 1484 AH, death of Khwaja Abdul Ghaffar Naqshbandi alias Pir Mitha
- 11 Sha'aban, birth of ‘Alī al-Akbar
- 11 Sha'aban 1293 AH, Abdulhamid II became sultan/caliph of the Ottoman Empire
- 15 Sha'aban, night of prayer known as Lailat al-Baraat or Nifsu Sha'aban observed by many Sunni Muslims
- 15 Sha'aban, birth of the last Twelver Imām, Muhammad al-Mahdi
- 22 Sha'aban 1314 AH, death of Khwaja Muhammad Usman Damani, a Sufi master of Naqshbandi tradition
- 23 Sha'aban 492 AH, Jerusalem was conquered by the First Crusade
- 27 Sha'aban, 1313 AH: Birth of Sayyad Laal Shah Hamdani, a prominent Naqshbandi shaykh