2008 - A Special Year

Over the last couple of days, over a billion Muslims have been celebrating the start of a new year.

As the lunar year is slightly shorter than the year that the Gregorian calendar measures, 2008 will actually see a very strange phenomenon as three lunar years will pass during this one year.

2008 will see the very last few days of 1429, the full year of 1430 and the first few days of 1431. These are Muslim years that we are currently living through, as the Muslim calendar began when the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) left Mecca towards Medina in a journey known as the Hijra.

The reason why Muslims measure the new year from this journey is because of the change in fortunes for Muslims that this journey represented. In Mecca, Muslims were persecuted and had to practice their faith secretly. In Medina, Muslims were free to practice their faith openly and to build places of worship.

As we enter a new Muslim year where we are, in most places, free to think, act, pray and live as we want, without any limitations and restrictions from either the state or from the prejudices of other members of society, it is important to value this freedom. After all, it is for this freedom that many Muslims left their homes and families in Mecca for 1429 years ago, a freedom that we are experiencing daily today.