Lunar calendar - 12 months Clarification

[InsaanAbdulla]

Asslamu Alaikum Brothers in Islam,

Please bear with me. There is a doubt that i regarding the 12 months in Quran 9:36 and how to interpret it.

Allah Ta'ala says in the Qur'an 9:36 :

"Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve [lunar] months in the register of Allah [from] the day He created the heavens and the earth"

Now, i understand that the "day" here refers to the period when Allah created the the Sun, earth and moon in a system and decreed for them their fixed orbits.

However, here is where lies my confusion, A month is considered to be 1 full lunation of the moon. That is, one New moon to the next. Which is about 29.5 days.

So 12 Lunar months would give us ~354 days. (Lunar Year)

But the earth takes 365 days to make one complete revolution around the Sun. (Solar Year)
So that leaves us with 11 days of Lag in the Lunar calendar.

So what year is Allah referring to in this Verse?
Lunar or solar?

And if it is Lunar, then what happens to the 11 days of Lag?
Does this mean that Allah is telling us about the 11 days of Lag?

So Brothers, How does one reconcile with this?

[Ahmed.]

The 'day' could refer to the spiritual world which is 1000 years of this world

[Abz2000]

Excellent question, i hope to learn more from incoming answers.

One thing i found is that although the lunar months are easy for anyone to follow - regardless of whether they have a calendar or not, the Moghul government would use the lunar calendar, but utilise the solar calendar for taxation due to it's congruence with the seasons and harvests.

The seasons and harvests do appear to show that the solar calendar is not something to be discarded completely in calculations or estimations (although the solar calendar gets adjusted in bulk once in a while to compensate for the fact that the solar year doesn't end at exactly 365 days (i read it's 365.2422 - so even the leap year adjustment can't do a classic timepiece job) - and as far as i can see - the adjustment of official months (possibly in context of leaders commiting corruption) is not allowed.




At-Taubah 9:37

إِنَّمَا ٱلنَّسِىٓءُ زِيَادَةٌ فِى ٱلْكُفْرِۖ يُضَلُّ بِهِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ يُحِلُّونَهُۥ عَامًا وَيُحَرِّمُونَهُۥ عَامًا لِّيُوَاطِـُٔوا۟ عِدَّةَ مَا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ فَيُحِلُّوا۟ مَا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُۚ زُيِّنَ لَهُمْ سُوٓءُ أَعْمَٰلِهِمْۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ

Verily the transposing (of a prohibited month) is an addition to Unbelief: the Unbelievers are led to wrong thereby: for they make it lawful one year, and forbidden another year, in order to adjust the number of months forbidden by Allah and make such forbidden ones lawful. The evil of their course seems pleasing to them. But Allah guideth not those who reject Faith.


See also

The principal astronomical cycles are the day (based on the rotation of the Earth on its axis), the year (based on the revolution of the Earth around the Sun), and the month (based on the revolution of the Moon around the Earth). The complexity of calendars arises because the (solar) year does not comprise an integral number of days or an integral number of lunar months.

The civil calendar in use around the world (Gregorian calendar) is a solar calendar. Solar calendars are based on the progression through the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun, but neglect any attempt to keep the months synchronous with the lunar phases. A lunar calendar bases each month on a full cycle of the Moon's phases (called a lunation or synodic month) without regard to the solar year. Lunar calendars usually start each month with a New Moon or the first visible crescent moon after New Moon. Luni-solar calendars try to remain synchronous
with both the solar year and the moon phases. However, a solar year does not contain an integral number of days or an integral number of lunar months. To compensate for this, many luni-solar calendars adjust the length of their years and months. Without such an adjustment the seasons will steadily drift through the months.

https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/calendars.php



Another question that arises in my mind is:
How on earth (or in heaven) can it all be expanding, and slowing down, yet be 365.2422 (24 hour days) all at the same time?