Shawwal


Shawwal is the tenth month of the lunar based Islamic calendar. Shawwāl stems from the verb shāla to 'lift or carry', generally to take or move things from one place to another, so named because a female camel normally would be carrying a fetus at this time of year.

Fasting during Shawwāl

The first day of Shawwāl is Eid al-Fitr. Some Muslims observe six days of fasting during Shawwāl beginning the day after Eid ul-Fitr since fasting is prohibited on this day. These six days of fasting together with the Ramadan fasts, are equivalent to fasting all year round. The reasoning behind this tradition is that a good deed in Islam is rewarded 10 times, hence fasting 30 days during Ramadan and 6 days during Shawwāl is equivalent to fasting the whole year in fulfillment of the obligation.
The Shia scholars do not place any emphasis on the six days being consecutive while among the Sunnis the majority of Shafi`i scholars consider it recommended to fast these days consecutively. They based this on a hadith related by Tabarani and others wherein Muhammad is reported to have said, "Fasting six consecutive days after Eid al-Fitr is like fasting the entire year." Other traditional scholarly sources among the Hanafiyya and Hanbaliyya do not place an emphasis on consecutive days, while the strongest opinion of the Malikiyya prefers any six days of the month, consecutively or otherwise.

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 10 to 11 days shorter than the solar year, Shawwāl migrates throughout the seasons. The estimated start and end dates for Shawwāl, based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia, are:
AHFirst day Last day
143915 June 201813 July 2018
14404 June 20193 July 2019
144124 May 202021 June 2020
144213 May 202110 June 2021
14432 May 202230 May 2022
144421 April 202320 May 2023

Islamic events