The First Ten Days of Dhu al-Hijjah: A Day-by-Day Calendar

The first ten days of Dhu al-Hijjah are the 1st to the 10th of the twelfth and last month of the Hijri year. They include the Day of Tarwiyah (the 8th), the Day of Arafah (the 9th) and Eid al-Adha (the 10th). In Sahih al-Bukhari 969, the Prophet ﷺ said that no good deeds done on other days are superior to those done in these days. By the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar, the ten days of 1448 AH run from Friday 7 May to Sunday 16 May 2027, with each Islamic day beginning at the previous sunset. Local announcements may differ by a day.

Key Takeaways

• The ten days are 1-10 Dhu al-Hijjah. The 10th is Eid al-Adha, so fasting is not part of that day.
• The main hadith on their virtue is Sahih al-Bukhari 969, with a fuller wording in Jami' at-Tirmidhi 757.
• The 8th is the Day of Tarwiyah, when pilgrims go to Mina. The 9th is the Day of Arafah.
• Calculated dates for 1448 AH: 1 Dhu al-Hijjah on Friday 7 May 2027, Arafah on Saturday 15 May, Eid on Sunday 16 May.
• The whole sequence moves together. If your community starts the month a day later, every day in the table moves a day later.

The hadith on the ten days

The core text is the narration of Ibn 'Abbas. In Sahih al-Bukhari 969, the Prophet ﷺ said: "No good deeds done on other days are superior to those done on these." The companions asked whether that included jihad. He said not even jihad, except for a man who goes out risking his life and his property and returns with neither.

The English translation on sunnah.com adds "(first ten days of Dhul Hijja)" in brackets to explain "these". Imam al-Bukhari placed the hadith in a chapter titled "Superiority of deeds on the days of Tashriq". The same narration through another chain names the days directly. In Jami' at-Tirmidhi 757, graded sahih (Darussalam) on sunnah.com, the wording is: "There are no days in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than those ten days."

The hadith does not name a single required act. It speaks of righteous deeds in general. Reports from the companions show how some of them spent the days. The chapter heading in al-Bukhari's Book of the Two Eids records that Ibn 'Umar and Abu Hurayrah went out to the market during the ten days saying takbir (Allahu akbar), and people said takbir after them.

The same heading reports Ibn 'Abbas explaining the "well-known days" (ayyam ma'lumat) for remembering God as the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijjah, and the "appointed days" as the days of Tashriq. The first phrase is in Quran 22:28, which in the Sahih International translation of the meaning reads "mention the name of Allāh on known [i.e., specific] days over what He has provided for them of [sacrificial] animals."

The Quran also opens Surah al-Fajr with an oath "and the ten nights" (89:2, The Clear Quran, a translation of the meaning). The translator's footnote on quran.com says this refers to the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijjah.

The ten days at a glance

The table gives the calculated Umm al-Qura dates for 1448 AH. Dates are calculated from the Umm al-Qura tables in the open-source hijri-converter library that this site uses. The "begins" column applies the convention that an Islamic day starts at sunset on the evening before. The US Naval Observatory's Islamic observances page uses the same convention and notes that, in practice, fasts and festivals are set by the visibility of the crescent.

Days 1 to 7: the run-up

The first seven days have no separate named observance. They carry the general virtue of the ten days described in the hadith above. Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry on the hajj says the pilgrimage rite begins on the 7th of Dhu al-Hijjah and ends on the 12th.

If you plan to offer a sacrifice

One instruction starts on day 1 and applies to people who are not on Hajj too. In Sahih Muslim 1977c, Umm Salama reports the Prophet ﷺ saying that when someone who intends to sacrifice enters the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, he should not have his hair or nails cut. How strictly this applies, and to whom in a household, is a question to take to a scholar you trust.

Fasting in the first nine days

Two reports describe the Prophet's practice, and they point in different directions:

• In Sunan Abi Dawud 2437, graded sahih by al-Albani on sunnah.com, one of the Prophet's wives says he used to fast the first nine days of Dhu al-Hijjah, along with Ashura and three days of every month.
• In Sahih Muslim 1176a, A'isha says: "I never saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) fasting in the ten days of Dhu'l-Hijja."

Scholars have discussed how the two reports fit together. Fasting these days is voluntary either way. What the texts say clearly is narrower: fasting the Day of Arafah is recommended for people not on Hajj (see day 9 below), and the 10th is Eid, which is not a fasting day.

Day 8: the Day of Tarwiyah

The 8th of Dhu al-Hijjah is called the Day of Tarwiyah. It is the day pilgrims move out of Makkah to Mina. The long narration of the Prophet's Farewell Pilgrimage in Sahih Muslim 1218a says that "when it was the day of Tarwiya (8th of Dhu'l-Hijja) they went to Mina and put on the Ihram for Hajj." The Prophet ﷺ led the noon, afternoon, sunset, night and dawn prayers there, then waited until the sun rose before setting out toward Arafah.

For people who are not on Hajj, the 8th is one of the ten days with no separate rite of its own. In the 1448 calculation it falls on Friday 14 May 2027.

Day 9: the Day of Arafah

The 9th is the Day of Arafah, when pilgrims stand on the plain of Arafat until sunset. For Muslims not on Hajj, it is the one day of the ten with a specific recommended fast. In Sahih Muslim 1162b, the Prophet ﷺ was asked about fasting the day of Arafah and said: "It expiates the sins of the preceding year and the coming year."

The fast runs from dawn to sunset on the daytime date: Saturday 15 May 2027 in the 1448 calculation. The evening of Friday 14 May already belongs to the 9th, which matters if you plan suhoor or evening worship. The reasons pilgrims themselves do not fast, and what to do when Makkah and your local calendar disagree, are covered in the Day of Arafah: date, meaning and fasting.

Day 10: Eid al-Adha

The 10th is Eid al-Adha, also called the Day of Sacrifice. Britannica's hajj entry places the pilgrims' animal sacrifice, in commemoration of Abraham's sacrifice, in the stage between the 8th and 12th days. The Muslim 1218a narration describes the Prophet ﷺ reaching the jamra (the stone pillar) on the morning after Muzdalifah and throwing pebbles at it.

Fasting is not part of this day. In Sahih al-Bukhari 1990, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab says the Prophet ﷺ forbade fasting on the day of breaking the Ramadan fast and on "the day on which you eat the meat of your sacrifices". So the ten days of virtue end on a festival, and any voluntary fasting in them stops at the 9th.

For Muslims at home, the day begins with the Eid prayer. In Sahih al-Bukhari 965, the Prophet ﷺ said the first thing to do on this day is to pray and then return to slaughter the sacrifice, and that an animal slaughtered before the prayer "was just meat" for the family, not the sacrifice.

The days that follow Eid, and how the sacrifice is timed, are explained in Eid al-Adha and the Hajj calendar.

How to map the ten days to Gregorian dates

Every date in the ten days hangs on one fact: which evening 1 Dhu al-Hijjah begins. Find that, and the rest follows by counting.

1. Find the calculated 1 Dhu al-Hijjah. Look it up in the Dhu al-Hijjah 1448 calendar or with the Hijri date converter. For 1448 it is Friday 7 May 2027.
2. Count forward. The 8th is seven days after the 1st, the 9th is eight days after, and the 10th is nine days after.
3. Step back one evening for the start. Each Islamic day starts at the sunset before its daytime date. The 9th of 1448 starts on Friday evening, 14 May.
4. Watch the end of Dhu al-Qa'dah. In the Umm al-Qura tables, Dhu al-Qa'dah 1448 has 29 days, ending on Thursday 6 May 2027. A community that does not sight the crescent that evening may complete Dhu al-Qa'dah to 30 days. Then 1 Dhu al-Hijjah moves to Saturday 8 May, and every day in the table moves one day later: Arafah to Sunday 16 May and Eid to Monday 17 May.

That last step is why calculated dates are a plan, not a ruling. R.H. van Gent of Utrecht University notes in his introduction to the Umm al-Qura calendar that around Dhu al-Hijjah the dates different communities observe can differ "by one, two or even three days." Follow the announcement of your local mosque or the authority you rely on.

Worked example: the next three years

The ten days move about 11 days earlier each Gregorian year. These are calculated Umm al-Qura dates from the same library.

For context, the calculated dates for 1447 AH put 1 Dhu al-Hijjah on Monday 18 May 2026, the Day of Arafah on Tuesday 26 May and Eid al-Adha on Wednesday 27 May 2026.

Plan the ten days

1. Open the Dhu al-Hijjah 1448 calendar and mark Thursday evening, 6 May 2027, as the provisional start.
2. Note the Day of Arafah and Eid al-Adha dates, and label them provisional.
3. If you intend to sacrifice, note the start of the month as the point from which Sahih Muslim 1977c applies, and ask a scholar about the details.
4. After your local Dhu al-Hijjah announcement at the end of Dhu al-Qa'dah, shift every date by a day if the month started later than the calculation.