Islamic Date Today in Pakistan

The box above shows today's Islamic date in Pakistan, worked out from the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee's decision on when the current month began. It reads the date in Pakistan time, so it is correct whether you open it in Karachi, Lahore or abroad.

Pakistan often runs one day behind Saudi Arabia, and sometimes two, because Saudi civil dates follow the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar while Pakistan starts each month only when the new crescent is seen. Both dates are shown so you can tell which one a notice or a relative abroad is using.

How Pakistan fixes the Islamic date

Each Islamic month has 29 or 30 days. On the evening of the 29th, zonal committees across the country look for the new crescent after sunset and send their reports to the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, which meets with the Pakistan Meteorological Department and SUPARCO.

• If credible witnesses see the moon, the new month begins the next day.
• If it is not seen anywhere in Pakistan, the month completes 30 days and the new month begins the day after.

So a month can never run past 30 days, and the decision is always announced the evening before. This page is updated with each decision. Until the committee meets, the start of the next month is marked expected, because cloud or a young moon can push it back by a day.

Why Pakistan and Saudi Arabia differ

Saudi Arabia prints its calendar in advance using the Umm al-Qura calculation. A month starts when, on the 29th, the new moon has formed before sunset and sets after the sun at Makkah. That can happen before the crescent is visible anywhere. Pakistan waits for an actual sighting, and because Pakistan is east of Makkah the sun sets there about two hours earlier, when the moon is younger and harder to see.

From Muharram 1447 to Rabi us Sani 1448, Pakistan began its months one day after the Umm al-Qura calendar in 12 of the 16 months, two days after it in 3, and on the same day once (Zul Hijjah 1447). Eid ul Adha 1447 fell on Wednesday 27 May 2026 in both countries, while Eid ul Fitr was Friday 20 March in Saudi Arabia and Saturday 21 March in Pakistan.

The Islamic date begins at maghrib

In Islamic reckoning a day starts at sunset, not at midnight. The night comes before its day, which is why the first taraweeh is prayed on the evening before the first fast, and why Shab-e-Barat is the night before 15 Shaban.

The calculator gives the approximate sunset time for your city and tells you when the next Islamic date begins. Hanafi timetables, followed by Deobandi and Barelvi mosques, put maghrib at sunset. Fiqh Jafaria timetables put it a few minutes later, when the redness in the eastern sky has gone. Dates on documents, cheques and school notices still change at midnight.

The 12 Islamic months in English and Urdu

The same months have several spellings in Pakistan. The names used on this site follow the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee's announcements.

Months of 1448 AH in Pakistan

Months marked Announced follow a Ruet-e-Hilal decision. Months marked Expected are our estimate from the age of the moon at sunset on the 29th, and a starred day count depends on the next sighting.

For the whole of 1447 and 1448 with Eid, Ashura and other dates, see the Islamic calendar 2026.

Moon sighting and the schools of thought

The Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee includes scholars of the Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahl-e-Hadith and Shia schools, and most Muslims in Pakistan follow its decisions for Ramadan, Eid and Muharram. Some differences remain, and they are held in good faith:

• Hanafi scholars, Deobandi and Barelvi, accept the decision of the state committee as binding for the whole country once it is announced.
• Ahl-e-Hadith scholars base the month on an actual sighting reported by trustworthy witnesses, following the hadith "fast when you see it and end the fast when you see it", and in Pakistan they generally follow the committee's announcement.
• Shia scholars follow the committee in most years. Ayatollah Sistani's rulings require the crescent to be seen with the naked eye, so some Shia families also listen for their marja's office before Eid.

If your mosque or scholar announces a different date, follow the ulema and fuqaha of your own school. This page shows the committee's date.

Questions about the Islamic date

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