Why does Islam follow the lunar calendar?

Because the lunar year is about ten days shorter than the solar year, Ramadan moves through all the seasons. So no country is left forever with the longest or hottest fasting days, and people all over the world are treated equally.

The solar year and the lunar year are two different ways of counting time. The solar year has about 365 days, the lunar year about 355. A difference of roughly ten days seems small. Yet for religious life it has a great effect.

Because the lunar year is shorter, the Islamic months move forward by about ten days every year. So Ramadan sometimes falls in the heat of summer, later in spring, then in winter. It moves through all the seasons, and after a little over three decades the cycle is complete.

Imagine that Ramadan were fixed in June according to the solar calendar. Then people in England would always have the longest fasting days, people in Pakistan always the hottest, and in Australia the fast would always be short and cool. That would be very unfair. Some peoples would always have it hard and others always easy.

The lunar calendar prevents this. Over the years every place receives both easier and harder times of fasting. Those in the north who have long days suffer less from heat. Those who live in hot countries also see years when Ramadan falls in the mild winter. Advantage and disadvantage take turns, and so all people in the world are treated equally.

The verses above show that the sun and the moon do not run by chance but according to God’s order. That He chose the moon for worship is no accident. It reflects fairness towards all people and the wish to make things easy for them.