Reading and Converting Hijri Dates on Saudi Documents

A Hijri date on a Saudi document is normally a date in the Umm al-Qura calendar, the calculated lunar calendar the Saudi government uses for civil purposes. To convert a Hijri expiry date, read it as day, month and year, then run it through a converter that follows Umm al-Qura, not a generic arithmetic Islamic calendar, which can be a day out. Treat your conversion as a check only. The deadline that counts is the one in the official record, so confirm it on the portal of the authority that issued the document.

Key Takeaways

• Saudi civil dates follow the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar, so use a converter based on it.
• "هـ" marks a Hijri date and "م" a Gregorian one; "الموافق" links a date to its equivalent in the other calendar.
• A Hijri year is about 10 or 11 days shorter than a Gregorian year, so a period counted in Hijri months ends earlier.
• Since October 2023, durations in official procedures are calculated by the Gregorian calendar, with stated exceptions.
• Your own conversion is not an official deadline. Check the record on the issuing portal, such as Absher for a residence permit.

Why Saudi paperwork carries Hijri dates

Saudi Arabia has long dated official business by the Hijri calendar. R.H. van Gent of Utrecht University describes the Umm al-Qura calendar as the one used by the government of Saudi Arabia for civil purposes, with its dates computed in advance by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh. The Umm al-Qura calendar explained covers how those dates are calculated.

Two recent decisions of the Council of Ministers moved some government business to the Gregorian calendar. Both were published in Umm al-Qura, the official Saudi gazette:

• Salaries (1444 AH). Decision No. 97 of 3/2/1444 AH requires government bodies and public institutions to calculate salaries, wages and all financial entitlements by the Gregorian calendar.
• Durations (1445 AH). At its session of Tuesday 16 Rabi al-Akhir 1445 AH (31 October 2023), the Council of Ministers approved calculating durations in all official procedures and transactions by the Gregorian date. The gazette text excludes durations tied to provisions of Islamic Sharia that are counted by the Hijri date, and periods that a text explicitly says are counted in Hijri. Arab News reported the same decision in English.

Neither decision tells you how a particular card, permit or certificate is printed. Older documents, documents from bodies with their own rules, and periods covered by the exceptions can still carry Hijri dates. That is why both calendars keep appearing on Saudi paperwork, often side by side.

How to read a Hijri date on a document

Saudi official texts usually write a date as day/month/year and mark which calendar it belongs to. The gazette page for the 2023 decision is a good model: it gives the session date as "16 ربيع الآخر 1445هـ الموافق 31 أكتوبر 2023م", that is, 16 Rabi al-Akhir 1445 AH, corresponding to 31 October 2023.

A year in the 1440s or 1450s is Hijri; a year in the 2020s is Gregorian. When only numbers are shown, the year tells you the calendar. The month number then maps to a month name:

The Islamic months page lists the same months with their meanings.

Converting a Hijri expiry date, step by step

Take a document showing an expiry date of 15/07/1449هـ.

1. Read it. Day 15, month 7 (Rajab), year 1449 AH.
2. Pick the right calendar. Use a converter that follows Umm al-Qura. Many apps and software libraries also offer an arithmetic "tabular" or "islamic-civil" calendar, which is a different system.
3. Convert. In the Umm al-Qura calendar, 15 Rajab 1449 is Monday 13 December 2027.
4. Compare with the document. If the document or its online record also shows a Gregorian date, check that your result matches. If it does not, rely on the official record, not your conversion.

Here is why step 2 matters. The tabular "islamic-civil" calendar built into the ICU library, which many browsers and Node.js use, puts 15 Rajab 1449 on Tuesday 14 December 2027, one day later. A day's difference on an expiry date is exactly the kind of error that causes trouble. The tabular Islamic calendar explains how that arithmetic system works, and why Hijri date converters disagree by a day covers the other causes.

The dates in this post are calculated from the Umm al-Qura tables in the open-source hijri-converter library (@tabby_ai/hijri-converter) that this site uses; the tabular comparison uses ICU's islamic-civil calendar.

A Hijri year ends earlier than a Gregorian year

Twelve lunar months are, on average, 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year, according to the US Naval Observatory. A period counted in Hijri months therefore ends before the same period counted in Gregorian months.

A worked example with calculated Umm al-Qura dates:

The Hijri year here ends 10 days earlier, because the year 1448 has 355 days. Over several years the gap grows by roughly 11 days a year.

Which way a given period is counted depends on the rule behind that document, including the exceptions in the 2023 decision. This post does not decide that for any specific permit or contract. If you are unsure, ask the issuing authority.

Where conversions go wrong

Sunset and midnight

An Islamic day begins at sunset, while a Gregorian day begins at midnight. Van Gent's Umm al-Qura date converter states that its Western dates are "the post-midnight equivalents", and most converters work the same way. So 15 Rajab 1449 begins at sunset on Sunday 12 December 2027, but the converter shows Monday 13 December. For a printed expiry date, the converter's day is the useful one; why the Islamic day begins at sunset explains the evening start.

Old dates and older rules

The Umm al-Qura calendar has followed different calculation rules over the decades, and converters do not cover every year. The hijri-converter library supports 1343 to 1500 AH (1 August 1924 to 16 November 2077); van Gent's converter covers 1356 to 1500 AH and notes that its dates for 1356 to 1411 AH come from a conversion table published in the early 1990s. For an old birth date or record, a one-day disagreement between tools is possible, and the date in the official record is the one to use.

Months adjusted after a sighting

The calculated table is not always the date in force. Van Gent's converter page notes that the dates for Muharram, Ramadan, Shawwal and Dhu al-Hijjah "are often adjusted" by the Saudi religious authorities after crescent sightings. His page on adjustments to the Umm al-Qura calendar gives an example where a day was counted twice: both 28 and 29 December 2007 were reckoned as 19 Dhu al-Hijjah 1428. A date falling in or just after one of those months can therefore differ by a day from a precomputed table.

Confirm the deadline on the official portal

A converter answers "which Gregorian day is this Hijri date?" It cannot tell you when a permit actually expires, what grace period applies, or which calendar a regulation uses. Only the issuing authority's record can.

• Residence permits (iqama). Absher lists a public service to check the status and expiry date of a resident ID, along with an exit/re-entry visa status service.
• Other documents. Check the portal or office of the body that issued the document, and read the date as shown there.
• Regulations. Decisions of the Council of Ministers are published in the official gazette, which is the authoritative text.

Nothing here is legal or immigration advice. Renewal deadlines, fees and penalties are set by the relevant authority and can change, so confirm them on the official portal before you act.

Common questions

Which date applies if the Hijri and Gregorian dates on a document disagree?

The sources above do not give a general rule for that case. The 2023 decision sets the Gregorian calendar for calculating durations in official procedures, with exceptions for Sharia-linked periods and periods a text explicitly counts in Hijri. For a specific document, ask the issuing authority or check its portal.

Can I use my phone's Hijri calendar to convert?

Only if it is set to Umm al-Qura. Phones and computers often offer several Islamic calendars, and the tabular one can be a day off from the Saudi date, as in the 15 Rajab 1449 example above.

Next steps

• Convert the date on your document with the Hijri date converter, which uses the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar.
• See the current calculated date on the Hijri date in Saudi Arabia page. On Monday 9 November 2026 it was 29 Jumada al-Awwal 1448.
• Write down both dates once you have checked them against the official record, and set a reminder well before the Gregorian date.