5. The exact date of the Prophet’s birth (Peace be upon him)

The exact date of the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) birth has not been determined so far and we do not know the correct date of his birth according to the Christian calendar. Historians and astronomers who had worked on this subject in the past have given various dates for the Prophet’s birth. Even the famous Encyclopedia Britannica gives doubtful dates and puts a question mark as to the year of his birth. From this it will be clearly known that the world is not sure of the date on which the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), who claimed to be the last of the prophets, was born.

The commonly accepted date for the Prophet’s birth is 20th April 571 AD. It is said that the famous astronomer Mahmood Pasha of Egypt, who lived in the 19th century, calculated this date. The other dates given by them are 20th August 570 AD and 29th August 570 AD. Calculations reveal that these date do not tally with the date recorded according to the Arabic calendar, which was same as the Hebrew calendar. The date of the Prophet’s birth according to that calendar is Monday the12th of Rabiul Awwal of the Elephant Era.

The historic records say that the Christians had build a church in order to attract the Arabs, but the Ka’aba attracted more attention than the newly built place of worship and Abraha, the Governor of Yemen, came to Mecca to destroy the Ka’aba, the long revered place of worship of the Arabs. He brought an elephant to facilitate the task. But his plans were foiled and all ended in a disaster. The Holy Qur’aan refers to this event in the chapter 105. It is recorded that the Prophet was born after 55 days of the event, which is said to have taken place on the 17th of Muharram in the year 570 AD.

The examination of the scientific records of the phases of the moon for the year 570 AD reveals that this date is Monday the 5th of May 570 AD. The moon was eclipsed on Tuesday the 6th of May 570 AD just before the infant Muhammad (pbuh) completed the first day of his life on the Earth!

According to the songs remembered since time immemorial, it is Monday, the 12th of Rabiul Awwal of the Arabic calendar. At that time their calendar had a fixed number of days for the twelve months; Muharram, Safar, Rabiul Awwal, Rabiul akhar, Jamadul awwal, Jamadul akhar, Rajab, Sha’aban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Zul ka’ad, and Zul hajj.

The twelve months of the year had 30 or 29 days alternating from Muharram to Zulhajj with an occasional leap year in which Zulhajj got 30 days, in order to adjust with the natural system. In this artificial lunar calendar, which was same as the Hebrew Calendar, the dates need not necessarily tally with the phases of the Moon. The full moon occurred on the 12th or13th and the new moon on the 28th or 29th in the Arabic calendar as against the 14th or 15th for the full moon and the 29th or 30th for the new moon in the Islamic calendar in which the dates must tally with the phases of the Moon.

The Arabic calendar is better than many others of its kind, because the error accumulated in 2000 years in it is only one day. The Jews use this calendar even today.

Islam does not accept even this minute error in recording time. A mistake in recording historic events can create a lot of confusion to the posterity. The error in calculating the date of the Prophet’s birth is only due to this confusion. It had baffled even the renowned astronomers and their calculations have gone wrong. People are made to believe a falsehood about the Prophet! How can Islam, which is the perfect code of life for mankind, tolerate such a serious mistake? So Islam has prescribed an error-free perpetual dating system for the people. The last Prophet in his last days during the Hajjathul Wida gave instructions to reform their calendar.

During the Hajjathul Wida he laid down rules and regulations for the Islamic Calendar. He made the seven days of the week and the dates, which represented them, and the months, which depended on the lunar cycle, sacred and inviolable. He named the months in which war is forbidden (Ash-hurul hurum) as Zul Qaid, Zul hajj, Muharram and Rajab. The Qur’aan explains this automatic cease-fire arrangement in the verse 9:36. All wars must cease in these months and this will allow a warring people enough time to think of the after effects of a war. The Prophet abolished the use of a leap year and ordered them to use the dates of the natural calendar, which depended strictly on the Manzils (the phases) of the Moon. He wanted the calendar to be fully natural so that there will not be any adjustments and confusion in future. All other calendars need periodical adjustments and this is known as intercalation (Nasie), which is forbidden in the Qur’aan. (9:37)

The Gregorian calendar, now in vogue in the world for recording the dates of events in history is not scientific. It accumulates errors in course of time and the accumulated days have to be removed at intervals. Whenever this is done, the method of calculation would change and the calendar must be renamed. The present calendar was known as the Julian calendar in the beginning. In 1582 AD the Pope Gregory 13 reformed it after removing 10 days, which had accumulated in that calendar by then. It was renamed as the Gregorian calendar.

The calculation methods in Julian and Gregorian periods are different. So if the date calculations are made without taking the intercalations into consideration, the results would be wrong and this is serious. Telling a lie about the Prophet who forbade falsehood is not a simple thing in the sight of Allah (swt). If we tell his date of birth, we must tell the truth. Otherwise we should admit that we do not know. In a recent publication under the Board of Islamic Publications, the book entitled “The Prophet Muhammad in the Indian context” the Prophet’s date of birth is given as on 20 or 22 April 571 AD. This clearly shows that people have no idea about the dates. They ignore the fact that a person cannot be born on two dates.

The commonly accepted date for the Prophet’s birth 20 or 22 April 571AD must correspond to 12th of Rabiul Awwal of the Arabic calendar. But according to the records, the year of the Elephant is 570, not 571AD. We can check whether this date is correct by simple calculations. The date of the Prophet’s demise is recorded correctly, for he was famous when he passed away, on Monday the 8th of June 632 AD corresponding to the 12th of Rabiul Awwal in the Arabic calendar. The span of the Prophet’s life can be calculated under two calendars. The number of days calculated according to both the calendars should be same if the dates are correct. It should be remembered that the 12th of the Arabic calendar corresponds to the 14th of the Islamic calendar.

Demise: 08 – 06 – 0632 AD = 12 – 03 – 0011 AH Monday

Birth: 20 – 04 – 0571 AD = 12 – 03 – 0053 BH Monday

* He passed away on Monday in the middle of Rabiul Awwal (full moon)

* Hijra took place in Rabiul Awwal after 53 years of the Elephant Era.

Now this has to be converted in to days to see whether both are equal. The number of days in the Christian and the Arabic year is 365.25(365.2422 true figure to be used for long periods) and 354.3671 days respectively.

Therefore:

AH – 64 x 354.3671 = 22679.49 days

AD – 61 x 365.25 + 50 = 22339.25 days

Difference = 340.24 days

This difference should not be there because the number of days of the Prophet’s life in this world cannot be different when measured by different calendars. This difference of 340.24 days is because the dates in one of the calendars are not correct. The Arabic dates are the original dates remembered from time immemorial and the Julian date for the Prophet’s birth is by calculation. Therefore the mistake must be in the calculation of the Julian date for the Prophet’s birth.

Now we can examine the Prophet’s date of birth (05 – 05 – 0570 AD) which we have arrived at by following the ancient historic records.

Demise: 08 – 06 – 0632 AD = 12 – 03 – 0011 AH

Birth: 05 – 05 – 0570 AD = 12 – 03 – 0053 BH

03 – 01 – 0062 years = 00 – 00 – 0064 years

Now let us convert this in to days so that both could be compared

62 x 365.2500 + 31 +3 = 22679.500 days according to Christian era

64 x 354.3671 + 00 +0 = 22679.494 days according to Muslim Era.

The absence of disparity proves that both the dates are correct.

Now we can cross check this by using another method of calculation and see if we can get the same date. The Prophet’s migration (Hijra) to Madeenah is an important event in the history. This is called the Hijra and Hijra Era began with this incident. The Prophet was 53 years old at that time. We can take the date of Miladunnabi of 1999 for this calculation.

Date of Miladunnabi of 1999 = 27-06-1999AD = 14-03-1420AH

Hijra Era attained 1420 lunar year on 27-06-1999. So the Prophet’s age on this date would be 1420 + 53 = 1473 lunar years. This subtracted from the date 26-06-1999 should give the Prophet’s date of birth according to Christian calendar. To enable this, 1473 lunar year must be converted in to Christian calendar.

Therefore: 1473 x 354.3671/365.2422=1429.1413 yrs.

1999-06-27 – 1429.1413yrs (0.1413 x12 to convert into months)=1.6956

1429-01-21 0.6956 months x 30.43 (convert into days)=21.167days.

Tuesday = 0570-05-06 – minus the error of one day existing in the CE By deducting 1day to correct the error existing in the Christian calendar we get the true date as, 0570 – 05 – 05AD Monday.

These calculations prove beyond any doubt that the last Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (pbuh) was born on MONDAY the 05th of MAY 0570 AD according to the Christian Calendar.