Dhu'l-Qa'da
Enable an agent to recognise Dhu'l-Qa'da, establish the status and boundaries of a particular occurrence, and support calendar-dependent actions under an identified authority.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise Dhu'l-Qa'da, establish the status and boundaries of a particular occurrence, and support calendar-dependent actions under an identified authority.
Dhu'l-Qa'da (Dhū al-Qaʿdah) is the eleventh month of the Islamic (Hijri) lunar year, one of the four sacred months in which fighting was traditionally forbidden, named for the sitting (qaʿdah) of tribes from war before the Hajj season.
It can be Resolve a supplied month name to vr.tr.dhu-l-qa-da while preserving its original spelling.; Identify a yearly occurrence using its Hijri year and applicable calendar context.; Express an occurrence as a qualified Gregorian interval or a set of unresolved candidate intervals.; Determine whether a reference time falls before, within or after the occurrence.; Schedule or revise month-relative reminders using the selected authority's dates.; Attach sourced religious associations and route action-specific interpretation to the relevant neighbouring model..
Distinguishing features
Its ordinal position is 11 in the Islamic calendar, following Shawwal and preceding Dhu'l-Hijja. [Islamic Relief](https://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/resources/islamic-calendar/dhul-qadah/)
Dhul Qadah, Dhu al-Qa'dah and Dhu'l-Qa'da can designate this same month; similarity to the name Dhu'l-Hijja must not override the different month identity.
It belongs to the four sacred months, but that classification alone cannot distinguish it from the other three. [Islamic Relief](https://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/resources/islamic-calendar/dhul-qadah/)
Its inclusion among the months associated with Hajj does not make it identical to the pilgrimage or determine the dates of individual rites. [Tafsir Ibn Kathir on 2:197](https://previous.quran.com/2%3A197/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir?locale=en)
An unqualified month name identifies a recurrence; a dated occurrence additionally requires a Hijri year and calendar context, rather than a permanently assigned Gregorian interval.
Scope
+ Month identity, Arabic name and transliteration variants
+ Year-specific occurrences within an identified Hijri calendar
+ Start, end and duration under a stated determination method and authority
+ Gregorian correspondence and local day-boundary conventions
+ Sacred-month and Hajj-season associations with attributed interpretations
+ Occurrence status, conflicting determinations and scheduling consequences
- The Islamic calendar's complete chronology and conversion algorithms
- Dhu'l-Hijja, its observances and its individual occurrences
- Hajj and Umrah rites, eligibility and pilgrimage administration
- Astronomical observation equipment and crescent-visibility models
- Independent religious rulings or personal religious obligations
- Historical events and commemorations as independently modelled things
Characteristics
- Islamic month position
- 11; predecessor Shawwal; successor Dhu'l-Hijja Disambiguates the month and detects accidental substitution of its neighbouring months.
- Naming form
- Arabic ذو القعدة; language-tagged transliterations and spelling variants Supports recognition across languages without creating separate things for different spellings.
- Occurrence year
- Identified Hijri year, era and calendar variant Separates the recurring month from a specific occurrence.
- Boundary determination
- Local sighting, accepted external sighting, calculation, tabular rule or other explicitly documented method Explains how an occurrence's dates were obtained and whether a forecast is sufficient for the intended action.
- Applicable calendar authority
- Named issuing body or calendar provider, with geographic or community applicability Prevents one community's determination from silently becoming universal.
- Occurrence duration
- 29 or 30 calendar days; unresolved until the applicable method establishes it Supports day validation and the transition into Dhu'l-Hijja.
- Boundary evidence status
- Unresolved, forecast, rule-derived, authority-confirmed, contested or superseded Determines whether an agent can commit a date or must preserve alternatives.
- Occurrence phase
- Upcoming, current, completed or indeterminate relative to a reference time and calendar context Supports timely reminders and detects stale scheduling assumptions.
- Religious classification
- Sacred-month membership and Hajj-month association, each with a source and interpretive context Supports relevant associations without treating a calendar label as a complete religious ruling.
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 35 questions.
Month identity Recognise Dhu'l-Qa'da across names and distinguish its recurring identity from neighbouring months and individual occurrences.
The similar names of Dhu'l-Qa'da and Dhu'l-Hijja make name matching alone insufficient.
Names and recognition
Connect attested naming forms to the registered month.
Name resolution
Record the supplied name, language and evidence for resolving it to this entry.
- Which Arabic or transliterated form identifies Dhu'l-Qa'da in this record? definition
- What source establishes that an unfamiliar spelling denotes this month rather than Dhu'l-Hijja? provenance
Sequence and occurrence
Anchor the month in the Hijri sequence and identify whether a reference is recurring or year-specific.
Eleventh-month anchor
Use ordinal position and neighbouring months to validate identity, then qualify any particular occurrence.
- Does the reference denote the eleventh month between Shawwal and Dhu'l-Hijja? definition
- Does it refer to Dhu'l-Qa'da generally or to an occurrence in a specified Hijri year and calendar variant? boundary
Month boundary determination Establish when a Dhu'l-Qa'da occurrence begins and ends under its applicable calendar practice.
An agent needs both the entry from Shawwal and the exit into Dhu'l-Hijja to determine membership and duration.
Entry from Shawwal
Capture the determination that establishes the first day of Dhu'l-Qa'da.
Opening determination
Record the opening boundary, its method and the authority or rule supporting it.
- Which sighting decision, calculation or calendar rule establishes the transition from Shawwal? provenance
- What local date and day-boundary convention define the start of 1 Dhu'l-Qa'da? measurement
- For which location or community does this determination apply? boundary
Exit to Dhu'l-Hijja
Establish the final day and resulting duration of the occurrence.
Closing determination
Relate the end of Dhu'l-Qa'da to the next month's opening without assuming that knowing the start settles the end.
- What determination establishes the transition into 1 Dhu'l-Hijja? provenance
- Does this occurrence contain 29 or 30 days under the selected calendar? measurement
- Is the closing boundary established or still conditional on a later decision? boundary
Civil date correspondence Translate Dhu'l-Qa'da dates into usable civil dates without losing calendar and locality assumptions.
The recurring month has no fixed Gregorian placement, and a displayed civil date may not express its complete religious day interval.
Qualified conversion
Make Gregorian representations traceable to a specific occurrence and conversion basis.
Gregorian mapping
Record the civil interval and the calendar source from which it was derived.
- Which Gregorian dates correspond to this Dhu'l-Qa'da occurrence under the selected calendar? measurement
- Which calendar edition, algorithm or announcement supports that correspondence? provenance
Local day membership
Interpret timestamps near month and day boundaries.
Sunset and civil labels
Distinguish a calendar's displayed date from the local interval used to decide membership in a Dhu'l-Qa'da day.
- Does the intended use follow a sunset boundary, a civil midnight label or another documented convention? boundary
- What location, time zone and boundary time are needed to classify the supplied timestamp? measurement
- Can the timestamp be assigned to Dhu'l-Qa'da unambiguously with the available information? action
Religious calendar associations Represent the month's sacred status and Hajj-season relationship with explicit interpretive limits.
These associations explain the month's significance but do not independently establish what a particular person must or may do.
Sacred-month membership
Attribute the month's religious classification and any claimed consequences.
Sacred status and interpretation
Separate identification as a sacred month from interpretations of conduct during it.
- Which source explicitly identifies Dhu'l-Qa'da among the sacred months? provenance
- Which tradition or authority supports any proposed consequence for conduct during this month? provenance
- Which proposed decisions require a religious-ruling model beyond month identification? action
Hajj-season membership
Connect Dhu'l-Qa'da to the interpreted months of Hajj without importing the pilgrimage's complete rules.
Pilgrimage calendar interface
Record the attributed Hajj-season association and distinguish it from rite-specific dates and administrative windows.
- Which source and interpretive tradition establish Dhu'l-Qa'da's inclusion among the months of Hajj? provenance
- Does the requested date concern month membership, a pilgrimage rite or an administrative deadline? boundary
- What additional pilgrimage-specific evidence is needed before acting on this association? action
Occurrence status and use Judge whether an occurrence's dates are usable and manage actions when determinations differ or change.
A forecast, an authority-confirmed boundary and a conflicting community determination support different scheduling decisions.
Determination status
Assess the standing and applicability of the dates assigned to Dhu'l-Qa'da.
Competing calendar determinations
Preserve alternative determinations with their authority, applicability and revision history.
- Are the occurrence boundaries forecasts, rule-derived dates or confirmed announcements? provenance
- Do differing dates reflect different communities, different methods or a correction by the same authority? boundary
- Which determination governs the user's intended use, and what evidence supports that selection? action
Month-relative actions
Use qualified occurrence dates to drive reminders and transitions.
Scheduling and revision
Evaluate the current phase of Dhu'l-Qa'da and update dependent actions when its accepted boundaries change.
- At the reference time, is this occurrence upcoming, current, completed or indeterminate? measurement
- Does the requested reminder require confirmed boundaries, or may it use a visibly provisional date? action
- Which scheduled actions must be recalculated if the start or the transition into Dhu'l-Hijja is revised? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Dhu'l-Qa'da as a named Hijri calendar month (month 11 of 12)
- Dhu'l-Qa'da as a sacred month (shahr ḥarām) under classical Islamic law
- Dhu'l-Qa'da of a given Hijri year as a dated interval in civil and religious timekeeping
- Observational Dhu'l-Qa'da (crescent-sighting start and length)
- Tabular/calculated Dhu'l-Qa'da (arithmetic Hijri calendars, including civil Saudi Umm al-Qura)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q186251 - item 'Dhu al-Qidah' (Islamic month)
- ISO 8601 / Hijri month number - 11 - eleventh month in the 12-month Hijri year; often written as Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah or similar in locale data
- CLDR / Unicode locale month name - islamic-month-11 / Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah (and regional display names) - month name key in Islamic calendar locales
- Arabic name - ذُو ٱلْقَعْدَة / Dhū al-Qaʿdah - classical Arabic form; many Latin spellings exist
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Quran 9:36 - twelve months, four of them sacred (scriptural, not a civil statute)
- Prophetic hadith (e.g. Sahih al-Bukhari) enumerating the four sacred months including Dhu'l-Qa'da
- Classical fiqh on ashhur ḥurum (prohibition of fighting in sacred months, with juristic exceptions)
- National civil Hijri calendars (notably Saudi Umm al-Qura) that fix the start and length of Dhu'l-Qa'da for government dating
- Observational moon-sighting practice used by many communities and some states to declare the month
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Civil and religious dating: letters, contracts, mosque notices, and state documents dated in Dhu'l-Qa'da of a Hijri year
- Liturgical calendar: the month immediately before Dhu'l-Hijja, so it frames travel, ihram preparation, and Hajj logistics
- Sacred-month observance: historically and in some legal-ethical teaching, a period of truce and restricted warfare
- Conversion tables and software: mapping a Gregorian date range onto Dhu'l-Qa'da AH n
- Public holidays and school calendars in some Muslim-majority states when Hajj-related leave begins near the month's end
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- ordinal position in Hijri year - 11 - month index
- length of the month - 29 or 30 - day
- mean synodic month (astronomical basis of the calendar) - about 29.53 - day
- offset from following Hajj month - immediately precedes Dhu'l-Hijja (month 12) - calendar sequence
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Moon-sighting disagreement: communities start Dhu'l-Qa'da on different civil days, splitting dated obligations and travel plans
- Tabular vs observational mismatch: a calculated 29/30-day month may not match local crescent sighting
- Sacred-month rule vs later practice: treating the month as a blanket ceasefire can be legally and historically overstated
- Transliteration collision: Dhul-Qadah / Dhu al-Qa'dah / Zilqad etc. break search, records, and software matching
- Confusion with Dhu'l-Hijja leads to wrong Hajj dates and ritual timing
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Latin spellings: Dhu'l-Qa'da, Dhu al-Qa'dah, Dhul-Qadah, Dhu al-Qidah, Zilqad / Zil-Qa'dah (South Asian usage)
- Start of the month: Saudi Umm al-Qura and other calculated calendars vs local ru'yat al-hilal in many communities
- Sacred-month legal weight: classical Arabian and early Islamic practice vs limited civil application in modern states
- Language forms: Arabic ذو القعدة; Persian/Urdu ذی قعدہ / Zilqad; Turkish Zilkade
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Dhu'l-Hijja (Dhū al-Ḥijjah) - Twelfth month and the Hajj month itself; Dhu'l-Qa'da is the eleventh and precedes it. Test: month number 11 vs 12, and whether the Hajj rites (8-13 Dhu'l-Hijja) fall inside it.
- Shawwal - Tenth month, immediately before Dhu'l-Qa'da; contains Eid al-Fitr at its start. Test: month number 10 vs 11; Eid al-Fitr is in Shawwal, not Dhu'l-Qa'da.
- Rajab - The other isolated sacred month (seventh month), not part of the three consecutive sacred months. Test: month 7 vs 11; Rajab is not adjacent to Hajj.
- Muharram - First month of the Hijri year and one of the four sacred months. Test: month 1 vs 11; Muharram includes Ashura (10 Muharram).
- Islamic lunar year / Hijri epoch - The year is the 12-month cycle; Dhu'l-Qa'da is one named month inside it. Test: whether the object is a year identifier (AH n) or a month within that year.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of Dhu'l-Qa'da this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Dhū al-Qaʿdah - Month identity as the 11th Islamic month; one of four sacred months; etymology of sitting from warfare; Hajj-season context.
- Dhu al-Qadah - Ordinal position, sacred-month status, spelling variants, and common associations (pre-Hajj month, some historical events).
- The Quran, 9:36 (At-Tawbah) - Scriptural basis that twelve months include four sacred months.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3197 (Book of the Beginning of Creation) - Prophetic list of the four sacred months: Dhu'l-Qa'da, Dhu'l-Hijja, Muharram, and Rajab.
What the second pass must settle
- Which Arabic orthographic forms, regional names and transliterations should be accepted as verified aliases for this registry entry?
- Which calendar authorities and community practices must the model support, and how should applicability be resolved when the user supplies only a location?
- How should historical Dhu'l-Qa'da occurrences be represented when calendar reconstruction or Gregorian conversion remains disputed?
- Which tradition-specific interpretations of sacred-month status and Hajj-month membership are necessary for intended agent actions?
- Which reported Dhu'l-Qa'da commemorations have sufficient evidence and community relevance to warrant links to separate observance models?